kevinkjl

I will be replacing my 3VZ engine on my ES300 this weekend and the manual says it should come out with the transaxle. I would have to remove the halfshafts (drive) to do this. Is it possible to remove only the engine?

llcoolpass

wow dude 3 posts and youre already replacing engine

how come u leave out the sotry and stuff. why are u replacing it whered u get replacement at what trans do u have etc

fill us the faq in! haha

to asnwer your question, duh, the shafts gotta come out of the spindle if youre going to remove them from the trans, which , when u take the trand out of the car is a given..... but u r really asking a 2nd question, can the engine be remove by itself. answer is that it would be far more challenging and risky to try that [see the room u need to slide the engine off the tranny input shaft with the room in the engine bay, plus, access to the bolts. the correct way is to lower the subframe 'way'. but feel free to improvise and share. good luck!

it sounds like even though u r willing to swap an engine in a weekend, u r new to this and also for some reason axles scare you.... replacing the axles should be the least of your worries mate. replace any worn out bolts and nuts and tap any threads of questionable integrity i could go on and on some things u just learn the hard way. i think theres a thread on here someone swapped theirs to a jdm one time. i think one of the 5spd guys . more than likely, ton of threads on toyotanation.

take many pics and label stuff. i use plastic bags for bolts and little parts, and label the bags. then share some pics with us.

kevinkjl

Thanks for reply and tips ||cool|pass.

Unfortunately at 150,000 miles, the head gasket blew....I hear that is common. The girl is in fairly good condition so I hunted and found an 60,000 mile engine that I have to remove first from an accidented ES300 that was in store for a few years. No doubt this will be a challenge so any tips in advance will help....like the tags and baggies. I'll also take stock in Liquid Wrench. The good news is that the gent I'm buying the engine from has a hoist lift and tackle for the engine pulls.

I'll definately take pics before and after.

charley240

iTrader: (6)

well, im sure you could get away with removing the engine only, but if youve ever pulled the transaxles, youll know that they are a pita to remove.
so yes, you will have to remove transaxle first, because youll need to remove them from the engine anways.
goodluck
Charley

llcoolpass

charley means pull the engine+tranny together

llcoolpass

also, the exhaust system: the two studs in each exhaust manifold, replace them if they are at all questionable condition because the ability for them to torque has to be excellent in order to seal the brand new toyota/lexus gaskets you're going to buy

also the down pipe if it's bad at all replace now. sadly, if your flange at the cat has rust-welded together then you'll probably need to replace the cat [and therefore most or all of the exhaust ]. this happened to me pita for my finances

lastly, i replaced the hg , with engine in car, a few months back. you should check out my pics if at anytime u forget where something goes in the engine bay it might help you never know.

which head went bad on yours? was it slow or catastrophic[mine]? do you have 5spd trans or auto??

now's a good time to get things like timing belt, especially on a car that's sitting there + if you have any doubts about miles on it. this means: water pump, all rollers [especially if even one has crunchy noise or other problem], definitely the hydraulic tensioner [40 bucks or so from my fav seller on ebay], the timing belt, and the drive belts. draining your power steering fluid and refilling now is a good idea. and thing about it, those rear spark plugs, putting in some nice iridium all around would be wise, as well as addressing the rear valve cover gasket [only do front if leaking since it is easy to address if it leaks compared to rear].

always feel free to email me/message me any questions. im pretty good about getting back to people.

i was considering getting a new engine, i just didn't have the money for that but i should have done that overall sincei planto keep the car for as long as possible. but a head gasket cost me nothing [i already had it from buying a fullgasket set from my fav ebay seller] and it cost me less than 75 in fluids filters brand new 25dollar[wallyworld] torque wrench clean up stuff to do the job. that's right, less than 75 us dollars to repair head gasket. but, i had the fun[?????]/work/responsibilty/PitA of replacing it.

llcoolpass

this is the hg thread i had [youll see early on i was really trying to get people to give me their theories about my head gasket failure because i find failures interesting ].

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...49k-miles.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...49k-miles.html

kevinkjl

Hello again ||cool|pass and thanks Charley240...

Not sure which head went...had to speak directly with the mechanic as salesguy originally said it was a cylinder and I believed him at first since the oil level rose with the coolant and she wouldn't turn over. If I knew I wouldn't have made a deal on the replacement engine and would have worked on the hg. However this engine looks great , timing belt was changed at 55,000 miles and I assume the water pump was changed as well.

I had an inkling the hg was going for the recent 4 years as I always had to top off the coolant after a long trip and I attributed that to perhaps some pressurization from the cylinders...never had any smoke though so I wasn't sure. So yes it went very gradually.

Today I was able to get an exchange on the tranny so I won't have to separate the engine from it after all. I will check and smell the oil first as I religiously changed the tranny oil on mine every 40,000. You convinced me on pulling them both so I bought some halfaxle seals the other day.

I also bought the exhaust gaskets today and looks like I'll get the two bolts as well....she's 16 so I hope for the best re remaining exhaust sys which is OEM. I think the exhaust sys sold me on Lexus as I remember changing them out every 2nd or 3rd year on NA cars.

I'm going to take a chance on the hg for now but I sure know what to watch out for! Thanks for the link to your threads. On the day it blew I did gun it abruptly in passing a string of commutors, and it had the shakes at the next light. I parked it about a minute later. After work it started OK but I had to keep the RPMs up for 2 miles. When I got home I noticed a vac hose had come off, replaced it ....couldn't figure why it had come off, smiled anyway, and shut the hood. The next day it would turn over at all.

Well one day on the count down....thanks again ....if I save this girl maybe I can retire next year

llcoolpass

wait, you're not even going to check out the engine yourself? so confused by that.

kevinkjl

Yes I will check the failed engine and perhaps rebuild it slowly over the winter if possible..it's been way over 35 years since a brief intro in mechanics as I later became an electrical expert in diesel locomotives. So I'm keeping this option open.

llcoolpass

you totally missed the point. you would go through all of this, which requires decent car knowledge, but not apply car knowledge to diagnosing the engine's problem yourself [even if just to check the mechanic's diagnosis]? then again, old engine gone, new engine here. have fun. take pics.

kevinkjl

Hello ||coolpass|. Well it's done, 3 days to swap out engines in -15 weather in an unheated barn. I'm totally exhausted..what an experience. I had trouble with the left side half axle when the CV joint open and a bearing dropped....I found a way to drop in a replacement by removing the caliper only. The power steering pump also was very difficult in removal and application ....did i say painful?

Well the engine purrs like a kitten and the only leak was from the fuel filter as the fitting has two gaskets on either side and no obvious. Glad I had the old engine to have for parts. I took a few pics and will send them soon.

llcoolpass

congratulations! U LEFT OUT SOME STUFF ABOUT THE PROCESS YOU DID - DID U DO IT BY LOWERING SUBFRAME ,AND FOLLOWING THE FSM , OR DID U JUST DO IT YOUR OWN WAY>? sorry for caps . cant wait for pics.

kevinkjl

Well the marathon is over and here are a few pics. The retired engine with the hg issue has some white stuff...yes that is snow. It was -5 F for the three days during the removal of the candidate 3.0l from a totalled ES300, removal of the retired 3.0l and the installation of the candidate engine. This was the first engine w/transaxle I had ever installed and thanks to your suggestions from |coolpass|, it went well and my '93 ES300 is on its way. When she started there was a little smoke from the 3 in 1 pre-lube oil I added to each cylinder, then it cleared and purred like a Lexus engine should...very exhilarating!

What did I learn? Well Lexus has quality and with the candidate engine had been stored for several years nevertheless the ECM (placed within the interior), electrical harnesses and plugs were easy to work with and showed no sign of corrosion. I never saw a warning light when the engine was first started.

Next, I want to work on the exhaust system as it is original and I've been told the catalytic converter is most likely plugged since a little coolant may have been leaking through the hg for some time. I'm not entirely sure the converter has been contaminated though. Any suggestions to validate that are welcome.

llcoolpass

dont change the cat unless youre sure its clogged, the coolant going through the cat is a bigger deal on newer cars where it damages the cat not so much clogs it is my understanding. are the flanges rust-corroded together at points in the exhaust system or no?

great pics.

you put 3n1 oil in each cylinder which is similar to what i do [wd40]. smart. its also best to do that early on, which you had no control over. but starting an engine sitting, by doing that, you save problems still so its always worth it to do that. that thing looks so FRESH and so CLEAN man. cool.

about the car's computer..... our 92 and 93 computers are like .... anti EPA. they do a good job and make the owner happy but for instance, I unplugged my 02 sensor in the rear bank, and ... the check engine light didn't go on, and not even after like 40 miles. so, that should say everything you need to know. lol actually, since the cali models have the extra O2 post cat sensor, im not sure if their computer is more sensitive for them, but who knows. probably the same nonchalant behavior.

so, did you remove the engine_with_tranny from the top like it looks you did?

your exhaust manifolds and certain other parts can be sold, so before you dump the engine [unless you have to give it, to the place you got the replacement from, as a core].... I wish I had a spare engine lieing around like you, cause if I did, I would probably fully dunk and clean the intake manifolds from the one engine then once clean, do a quick swap. and then if I needed to in future, i would swap parts between the two as needed.